Hops in primary before the yeast

[The Green Man]

By fate of chance, my aroma steep hops went into the primary while the wort cooled to pitching temps. Pitched the yeast with the loose hops still in.
I've read about the danger of a grassy taste if hops are left too long, so was thinking of racking to secondary and tea strainer-ing (?) out most of the old hop material once fermentation is done.
Sound like a plan, or should I just leave the little blighters in there?

 

[J A]

Leave it! You won't get any grassiness. I ran 2 oz of dryhops in pre-pitch on a Pale Ale and it was incredible. Some hops can give a vegetal note if dry-hopped in secondary too long, but leaving flame-out hops in won't cause you any trouble.

 

[The Green Man]

Leave it! You won't get any grassiness. I ran 2 oz of dryhops in pre-pitch on a Pale Ale and it was incredible. Some hops can give a vegetal note if dry-hopped in secondary too long, but leaving flame-out hops in won't cause you any trouble.

Cheers JA. Do you think I need to dry hop too, or will this do the trick?

 

[J A]

Totally depends on the beer. For Blondes I don't usually do a lot of flame out hops or whirlpooling. For Pales I like plenty of aroma hops and maybe whirlpool but often not a lot in the way of dry hops. For IPAs, I like plenty of late boil hop and flame out and plenty of dry hops too.
And it depends on the hop variety.
What's your recipe like?

 

[The Green Man]

Totally depends on the beer. For Blondes I don't usually do a lot of flame out hops or whirlpooling. For Pales I like plenty of aroma hops and maybe whirlpool but often not a lot in the way of dry hops. For IPAs, I like plenty of late boil hop and flame out and plenty of dry hops too.
And it depends on the hop variety.
What's your recipe like?

It's a pale ale (https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/526564/revelation-pa). Used cascade with a bit of nugget. Think I'll leave the dry hop and use the hops in my next beer, a summer ale.
This could be a good method to get the most out of your hops.
Another question, if you don't mind. I drop in bags of pellet hops during the boil. Should I leave all those in through Primary fermentation? I have been removing them with a sterilised ladle, but I have a feeling they still have something to offer after the temperature has died down. No idea what the standard practice is.

 

[BoomerBrian]

Should be fine. Not sure how much aroma you will get from it though. If you want to save your hops it should be fine.

 

[J A]

No idea what the standard practice is.

I use a hop bag to keep hop gunk from clogging my chill plate. A lot of folks whirlpool either by pumping or stirring and settle the hops in a pile in the middle of the pot and drain clean wort carefully leaving the hops in the boil pot.
Hop sludge isn't going to hurt anything, but it can make for a bigger mess when harvesting yeast slurry, for instance. Just get a hop bag...I use a 1 gallon paint strainer bag from Home Depot - couple of bucks for a 2 pack and they last forever.

 

[The Green Man]

I use a hop bag to keep hop gunk from clogging my chill plate. A lot of folks whirlpool either by pumping or stirring and settle the hops in a pile in the middle of the pot and drain clean wort carefully leaving the hops in the boil pot.
Hop sludge isn't going to hurt anything, but it can make for a bigger mess when harvesting yeast slurry, for instance. Just get a hop bag...I use a 1 gallon paint strainer bag from Home Depot - couple of bucks for a 2 pack and they last forever.

Cheers for that. Doesn't sound like all the hop additions left in makes much difference. Might try leaving them all in and see what happens. Will have to be in an IPA of course. I'm so small scale that I'm literally using pots and pans until I get to the fermentor, so nothing to clog.

 

[Mase]

We transfer everything from the boil kettle to the fermenter and use a hop filter bag between the two (kettle and fermenter) to catch all the solids/sediments. Much easier and quicker then whirlpooling.

 

[The Green Man]

We transfer everything from the boil kettle to the fermenter and use a hop filter bag between the two (kettle and fermenter) to catch all the solids/sediments. Much easier and quicker then whirlpooling.

Thanks, Mase. I just pour the whole lot into the fermentor. A lot of trub ends up in my fermentor though. Does your method stop this too? Sounds like most people remove as much hop material from the boil as possible. Still wondering what the result would be if you didn't.

 

[Mase]

Thanks, Mase. I just pour the whole lot into the fermentor. A lot of trub ends up in my fermentor though. Does your method stop this too? Sounds like most people remove as much hop material from the boil as possible. Still wondering what the result would be if you didn't.

That much sediments in the fermentor just asks for a mess when transferring from primary to secondary (I still do secondary), and I'm not sure I want those hop sediments in the primary. I actually purchased a hop spider but it was my wife that said "why not just filter after the valve [of the boil kettle]". And we've never looked back since. We leave no wort behind, and even with the Hoppy beers with a lot of boil additions, we simply use a 10" hop filter bag above the funnel sitting atop the fermenter. Depending on the amount of hops or other deposits, we may have to close the valve to dump the filter bag a time or two, but we get virtually ever drop of wort. There's very very little sediment that gets past the filter bag. Only those sediments smaller than the opennings of the filter bag.

 

[GFHomebrew]

I dump pretty much everything into fermentor green man. As Mase said it just maked your nect transfer tricky. I give it a good cold crash so this drops a lot of the sediment for me then i add filter on end of transfer hose to keg. Each to their own but ive found no flavour problems from dumping the whole kettle in fermentor.

 

[Nosybear]

I dump pretty much everything into fermentor green man. As Mase said it just maked your nect transfer tricky. I give it a good cold crash so this drops a lot of the sediment for me then i add filter on end of transfer hose to keg. Each to their own but ive found no flavour problems from dumping the whole kettle in fermentor.

I've started siphoning but whatever goes into the fermentor goes in. My hops are bagged so there's very little hop debris, meaning most of what gets siphoned off is hot- and cold break, largely flavorless proteins. Think scrambled egg whites with no salt, sugar or butter.

 

[J A]

Think scrambled egg whites with no salt, sugar or butter.

Breakfast of yeast-champions!

 

[Gledison]

Totally depends on the beer. For Blondes I don't usually do a lot of flame out hops or whirlpooling. For Pales I like plenty of aroma hops and maybe whirlpool but often not a lot in the way of dry hops. For IPAs, I like plenty of late boil hop and flame out and plenty of dry hops too.
And it depends on the hop variety.
What's your recipe like?

When you do your flame out or whirlpooll, how Long are the hops in contact with the wort? i see People cooling down the wort as quick as possible and im wondering if you leave it longer, you would get more Aroma than a short chill...

 

[J A]

When you do your flame out or whirlpooll, how Long are the hops in contact with the wort?

It depends, but usually I'll pull the hop bag (with all the hop additions in it) after the wort has cooled pretty substantially. It's hard to handle the bag when it's really hot and I like to squeeze the wort out of it. I've left hops in for an overnight cool-down period when waiting until the next day to pitch, but only in the case of a juicy Pale with tons of late hops. If I'm whirlpooling (for me just a hop-stand since I'm not pumping or stirring) I just stop the cool-down at about 160 and let the hops sit for 20 minutes. I don't really bother with whirlpool additions anymore and petty much just depend on flameout and dryhopping.